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Hypergrid Safari – The evolution of exploration across the interconnected Metaverse

Between 2010 and 2012 I had a lot of fun organizing and running the Hypergrid Adventurers Club (HGAC) meetings. Those were the very early days of Hypergrid connectivity in Opensim, and things often went awry during our explorations. We all helped each other out through crazy technical challenges and exciting adventures, but it was the community of wonderful people at these meetings that impressed and amazed me the most.

Time moved on and in 2012 I stopped organizing Hypergrid Adventurers Club meetings. Not because of any lack of interest in Opensim and the Hypergrid on my part, mind you. I’m still very excited about the future of Opensim and the Hypergrid, and I continue to explore and experiment a lot on my own. It was just that I felt the HGAC had run its course. Opensim was becoming much more stable and easier to use, hypergrid jumps were becoming very reliable, and directories of great places to explore were expanding (see Hyperica and OpenSim World). Also, attendance was gradually declining, and other aspects of my life were getting busier, so I figured it was time to wind things down.

But when one flower closes, a new one blooms. That’s the true beauty of online communities. Healthy ones change and grow.

The Hypergrid Safari is a new group that runs weekly tours across Opensim. In their own words:

“Want to discover open sim and learn to hypergrid? Join our friendly weekly trips to destinations all over the hyperverse, and get help with shopping for your avatar, free land opportunities, and sympathy when you run up against snags and bugs.”

I’ve been attending these trips and they’re fantastic. The organizers are Thirza Ember, Fuschia Nightfire, Wizard Gynoid and Wizardoz Chrome. I think all of them bring beautiful new perspectives to exploring the Hypergrid, in particular the perspectives of skilled content creators and innovative artists who have a long history of pioneering work in Second Life and other virtual worlds. And everyone attending brings their own thoughtfulness and great sense of humor to the group. Once again, it’s the community of people that impresses and amazes me the most.

Good to see you, Minethere. :) Thanks for that info about Kitely. I didn’t realize they were doing tours like that, but it makes sense since Kitely has just recently been connected to Hypergrid. Great opportunities for Kitely residents to start exploring!

Unfortunately this was used to go into a closed non-hypergated grid, and such things have no interest for me. I joined in because they said it was for hypergated places only, as the title says. I won’t be participating in this anymore. tc

Greetings,
As a past Hypergrid Adventurers Club (HGAC) member and Virtual Worlds Evangelist , I am encouraged by the ongoing explorations across the interconnected Metaverse by Hypergrid Safari. I am delighted that others will continue group explorations across the interconnected Metaverse. It is so much more fun when exploring with others!

I often find myself re-reading the 2011 Hypergrid Business article, “Curiosity, pioneer spirit drive hypergridders” by Miriam Pia (http://bit.ly/1qglJmP). Even now in 2014 and after several OpenSim explorations, I still… “see hypergrid jumpers as ‘testers for future travelers’ or ‘frontier scouts’ who will enhance the experiences of future jumpers”. Although many of the “future travelers” have not joined (or even discovered) the Metaverse, their virtual-based explorations will definitely be enhanced due to the “pioneer hypergridders” including Hypergrid Adventurers Club (HGAC), Metaverse Tours, and Hypergrid Safari. The OSGrid-based “Sarvana” (even Kitely-based “Sally”) is looking forward to exploring with the Hypergrid Safari group.

May the “spirit of curiosity” continue throughout the Metaverse! Thank you, John “Pathfinder” Lester for the information!

Unfortunately for me, I joined the HGAC too late although I’ve been hopping around grids before I knew it existed. I love the idea and I love the hypergrid. I’ll definitely check out the HG Safari and join the group. For me, the main attraction in OpenSim is hypergridding, oh and a host of other things, of course. :)
Thanks, John, for spreading your enthusiasm.

As Miney mentioned above, we have a similar, but smaller group that’s been exploring OpenSim on Saturdays at 1pm PDT. We leave from the Kitely Welcome Center at: grid.kitely.com:8002:Kitely Welcome Center . We started as a way to introduce Kiteleans to the other grids, but now folks from other grids join in. Everyone is welcome. We usually explore a couple of Kitely regions and then hypergrid out to the greater metaverse.

By the way, I think of that elephant at Teravus Plaza as coming through a portal, not being mounted on the wall! :-)

Thanks for the details Serena. That’s great. Do you have a Google or Facebook Group where folks can connect with you and each other? I’d love to link to it from this blog post and help spread the word however I can.

And I really like your perspective about the elephant. Now I see it that way too! :)

About Me

John "Pathfinder" Lester is a leader and expert in Community Development, Knowledge Management, 3D Simulations, Multiuser Virtual Worlds and Immersive Learning. His background is in neuroscience research and medical education, and he previously worked at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and Linden Lab.
John is currently the Chief Learning Officer at ReactionGrid, helping clients develop new systems for immersive learning using next-generation virtual world platforms that integrate with the web. John is also Community Developer and Creative Advisor at Wiggle Planet, helping create free range, self-animated artificial life at the intersection of augmented reality and the physical world.
For more contact info please see http://about.me/pathfinder